Harry Potter and the Winter Court
by Dunstan Xenon
Summary: The Winter Queen has a mission for the Winter Lady and Winter Knight, and they are going to make quite the impact on Harry Potter, on the Ministry, and at Hogwarts. After Cold Days in Dresden Files. Beginning of OotP for the books. Slight AU before and major split during the course of the story. HP/HG and possible HD/MC. Please judge the story on the story and not the summary.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: First Steps *EDITED***

**I own nothing.**

"You want me to do what? And go where?" Dresden asked incredulously.

"I am sending you and the Winter Lady to capture or destroy an Outsider as is your duty as the Winter Knight and the Master of Demon's Reach," responded Mab, the Winter Queen, her voice cool with disinterest.

"Yes, but you didn't exactly say where you are sending us. I would like to know what we need to expect, as well as how you suggest we are going to get there," he replied hotly. "And how do you know that it was an Outsider and not some random ice sprite anyway?" He still wasn't used to the new job title he had acquired some months ago, or the fact that Molly was now, in a way, one of his bosses.

"Follow me," Mab said calmly. As she stood and calmly made her way out through of the side doors to the main hall, Harry Dresden and Molly Carpenter share a nervous glance. The two follow the Queen of Darkness out into the halls of Arctis Tor.

As she led the two of them out of the fortress city and into the wilderness of the Nevernever, Molly leaned over and whispered, "Any idea where she's taking us boss?"

Harry shook his head, he was just as, if not more confused, than she was, but smiled despite himself for a brief moment from the term of endearment she started using when she became his apprentice a couple years ago. But the moment passed as he remembered the gravity of the situation.

If an Outsider had truly gotten loose it was imperative that whatever got passed the defenses was tracked down and killed. Just as it was paramount that they figure out how it got out in the first place.

Figuring out what happened and preventing a repeat wasn't in his job description for this case though, that was the Rasid the Gatekeeper's job.

Figuring out where it escaped to, what it was planning on doing, and stopping it were his responsibility for now.

No, matter how much he didn't like it. Harry Dresden would much rather stay at home and keep those important to him safe, like his _daughter_ Maggie, which he still hadn't gotten used to the thought of or Karin Murphy... But that had been shot down in no uncertain terms by the Queen of Darkness herself.

He had tried to argue the point with Mab when she first brought up the mission to him a few hours ago and told him he would be leaving Chicago. She simply shrugged and said it was his choice, just that he should remember that all choices have consequences. As she turned to leave she dropped a few photos on the table in front of him.

One was a family picture of the Carpenters in front of their home.

One was a picture of Karrin sitting in on a sofa.

One was a picture of his daughter in her crib.

Harry had no doubt in his mind that these people would suffer if he didn't agree.

Molly had readily agreed to go before he was even approached, and when he tried to broach the topic, she simply said she would tell him eventually.

At least he would be able to keep an eye on her while they were, well, wherever Mab was sending them, and Harry wondered, not for the first time, if she wasn't trying to kill him.

Once it had been impressed upon him that he had no choice in the matter at hand, he resigned to get the best of the situation.

Harry had suited up in all of his best gear, a new leather trench coat with strong enough protective enchantments to protect him from a loup garo, his newly carved Oak staff and blasting rod, his upgraded shield charm bracelet and force rings, and new combat boots. With his black shirt, dark jeans, .44 Magnum revolver, and wide brimmed hat, Harry looked like he belonged on the set of a western. Dresden even managed to slip Bob's skull into a travel bag without awaking the spirit of intellect.

He decided to leave the swords behind with Murphy, so if they were needed in his city, someone would be able to help in his place, even if neither of them had liked the idea in the first place.

Molly took her equipment ideas from Elaine Mallory rather than Dresden. Harry suspected that she made the switch during the time he was officially dead. Molly already had rings and a bracelet similar to Harry's but now she also a second bracelet and a chain necklace that she used in place of his blasting rod and staff respectively.

After the Winter Lady Mantle attached itself to Molly, Harry took a set of leather pants and leather coat from her and enchanted in the same way his own leather duster was to help protect her. They also remade her jewelry in silver and platinum. Now that she was a member of the fae, she could not touch iron any more.

Harry was trying very hard to remember what she looked like when she was a little bit more innocent, when he met her oh so long ago. Mostly to stop him from thinking how good her legs looked in those pants and about that conversation he had with Murphy about there being something between them.

Despite his apprentice's distractions, here he was following the Queen to Uriel knows where and could do nothing about it.

Eventually the hallway they were in ended in a large set of heavy double steel doors. Which was wrong on its own, nothing with iron in it was allowed into the Nevernever. It was poison to any and all sidhe.

Whatever was behind this door was either very important or very dangerous.

If Dresden's track record was anything to go by, it would be both.

The two guards for the doors put on thick woolen gauntlets, the word 'gloves' simply wasn't strong enough for this situation, and hauled the doors open.

Inside was a large circular room held up by two dozen stone columns. In between each set of pillars were stone arches covered in runes, with a silvery black veil shrouding whatever was behind. The entire room felt older than Arctis Tor.

Faint whispering could be heard from behind the veils.

"Hell's Bells," Dresden whispered in awe. The magic flowing through the room was palpable and almost overbearing. He glanced over at Molly to see if she might know anything about this, but her jaw was hanging open in astonishment much as his probably was.

_Well,_ he mused sarcastically _at least I know I'm going somewhere interesting._

Queen Mab walked to the arch directly opposite from the doors they entered. For Dresden it felt like walking against a stream.

There was so much magical energy flowing out of that arch that he was _only_ _slightly_ apprehensive. Perhaps a _little_ curious what could possibly have so much power that it could afford to let it radiate off them like this.

"Do not touch the passage unless I tell you to do so," Mab commanded coldly as Molly reached out to touch the curtain as it fluttered as if in a breeze, causing her to flinch back and clasp her hands behind her back.

The queen fixed the both of them with a stare that could freeze water as she described their mission to them.

"The Nevernever is a plane exists in between realms and connects them together. Each of these arches is a gate to another realm. You come from one of those realms and our adversary lies in the realm beyond this gate. For the most part your realm and the one you are going to are the same. There are a few differences. The air spirit you have in that skull will be able to tell you when you get there –"

"How does Bob know about the other realms?" Dresden cut in out of surprise.

"Do not interrupt me," Mab growled out while her eyes flashed darkly. Harry clamped his mouth shut and mimed locking it and throwing away the key.

"There is another portal in the realm that will bring you back when you have completed the mission."

"Who does the outsider inhabit? And how do we find them?" Molly squeaked out before succumbing to Mab's glare.

Mab then turned and placed her hand the arch, which lit up like a Christmas tree in response. The Veil flashed bright white light and began to part. Mab nodded in the direction of the opening and walked through.

The two hesitated, more than a little worried about following the Queen of Darkness through a portal that positively poured through it. But they then followed with haste when they heard the Queen speak.

"Desist. And remove yourselves from this place."

* * *

_Harry,_

_How is your summer going? Has Dumbledore really not told you anything?_

_Why isn't he telling you what is going on? You were in the graveyard, and you are the one Voldemort is trying to kill. You have more right to know what's going on than anyone else._

_There hasn't been anything good in the prophet though. It's only gotten worse since last year. They seem determined to bury their heads in the ground and slander you and Dumbledore._

_And do you really have to stay at your relatives? I know you don't like it there, is there nowhere else for you to go? Can you… Never mind._

_Have you tried asking Sirius if he knows what is going on? Maybe he can convince the Headmaster to tell you something._

_Anyway, I looked up that rune set you showed me and I can't find any reference to it anywhere. Some of the symbols look similar to ones you can find in ancient Sumerian and Egyptian, but not close enough to make sense of it._

_Where did you find it? Do you think you could show in September on the Express?_

_And please try to stay out of trouble. I know how it always seems to find you but…_

_Love_

_Hermione_

Harry looked up from reading the letter for the fifth time and rubbed his scar. It didn't hurt right now but he was definitely starting to get a headache.

Why did Hermione have to be so frustrating sometimes? She had been signing her letters to him like that since they first met, and he still didn't know how to react to it.

It was also a disappointment that she hadn't found out any of the runes. Harry had been trying to find out more about them since he could read. He tried even more so when he found out about magic and especially when he stared taking runes in third year.

But even though he found ancient runes fascinating he still didn't have any clue where the runes came from or what they meant.

Harry lay back on his lumpy mattress and fingered the offensive chain that after 15 years he still couldn't identify, and that no one else could touch or see. Merlin, he couldn't even take it off himself, and it was on his own bloody neck!

He sighed as he picked up and played with the pentacle pendant on his necklace. Harry huffed as he watched the dim light from the streetlamp outside playing off of the star shaped emerald overlaying the star of the pentacle.

Surveying the clutter and waste that littered his cell for the summer hurt in almost a physical sense. He was being cut off, deliberately if he was being honest with himself, by the headmaster.

Harry got up off the bed and headed toward the door, determined to at least get a little fresh air while he had to sort through the heavy thoughts and heavier feelings weighing on him before he had to write a response to Hermione.

Absent mindedly, Harry rubbed Hedwig on his way out, who cooed appreciatively and supportively back to him, drawing a smile from him for the first time since she had brought a response back from Hermione.

Listening carefully for the individual sounds of his relations breathing, the low snorts and grunts of his cousin, the heavy grating of his uncle, and the high whistle of his aunt, Harry crept from his room, making sure to keep the stairs and door from creaking as he made his out to the deserted streets of Little Whinging.

It was unusually cold for a late July evening, even if it was past midnight. That didn't both Harry though, lost as he was in his musings. The cloudy sky which promised a violent summer storm went decidedly unnoticed by the silently contemplative teen.

His green eyes, normally bright with mischief and promising excitement, had gone cloudy with distress and confusion. Unruly hair, as dark as the night around him, was made more so as the wind swirled around him.

As he slowly made his way towards the park only a few streets down, Harry Potter thought about his lot in life.

His relatives, while not nice were, at least, not cruel. He had lived with them ever since his parents had been killed. But his aunt and uncle never talked about them. Especially not to Harry. Not that his relatives talked to him much at all.

Harry had been ignored for as long as he could remember. He was fed three meals a day, and clothed properly, nothing new though, all his clothes came from an out of the way thrift-store. He never had a birthday and never had a Christmas in the ten years he had been living with the Dursley's.

He wasn't ever given toys either, but his imagination more than made up for it. And his library card. Harry's favorite thing to do in the world was never reading but it was a nice way to unwind and escape from his less than welcoming circumstances.

It certainly served him well once he had been introduced to the magical world by Professor McGonagall. That was also been one of the only times he had been offered any information by his aunt Petunia. When he had asked about the 'Owl' and how to send a reply to those mysterious people who offered him a way out of his unassuming life, she had told him about how her sister Lily, his mother, had been a witch and had gone to that Hogwarts place.

When Professor McGonagall had arrived and taken him to Diagon Alley, Harry was finally told about his legacy, and was not happy. He was famous because his parents were dead and he, just Harry, had somehow survived and been labeled the Boy-Who-Lived.

The only two redeeming things that happened that day were learning about this new world, which had apparently known about him for far too long, and meeting his first real friend: Hermione.

Of course Harry had 'friends' at school but they were really people who tolerated his presence. McGonagall had explained that when powerful magical youth were raised among muggles the magic that radiated off of them drove all but the closest magical relations spare. No one knew why but everyone assumed that it had to do with the way their magical cores were growing and fluctuating. That was also why magical education didn't start until the age of eleven; their magical cores weren't stable enough to accept a proper wand.

Needless to say, both he and Hermione had been happy to receive an explanation for their unhappy childhoods. And both of them had turned to books in absence of people they could really be close to. Right then and there they swore they would be friends no matter what happened. It was why Harry had gotten his snowy owl (or was he his snowy owl's?), Hedwig, so they could write each other letters and get really close to each other.

For the rest of the summer the two of them wrote to each other daily. And when both Harry and Neville saved her from the Troll on their first Halloween they sealed their friendship. After that they had become inseparable. Harry, Hermione, and Neville suffered, survived, and studied together as much as they could. Together they tackled classes, exams, and seemingly everything the magical world could throw at them, from basilisks, dragons, rogue teachers, merpeople, Death Eaters, and more.

On days that he was being completely honest with himself; which were coming more and more often, he really liked Hermione. The two of them had gone to the Yule Ball together while he was a champion for that horrendous Tri-wizard Tournament. But the most he had done that night was kiss her on the cheek, much like she did a couple months later when he pulled her out of the lake. Thank god for Neville and Gilliweed.

And of course she's been signing her letters with love since they first met in Diagon Alley. So how was he supposed to take that; he liked her! And Harry had no real hints as to whether she liked him.

But that wasn't his only problem. After he managed to grab the Cup at the center of the maze the Boy-Who-Lived, unwittingly became part of a necromantic ritual which saw the return of the dark lord Voldemort.

At this point Harry had already reached the park. Sighing as he sat down on the swings, he continues his musings on the summer.

He had been left there at the beginning of the summer break and was told precisely nothing about what was going on or what was going to happen. The only people who believed what happened were the professors, Sirius, Hermione, and Neville. And the professors only believed him because the headmaster did.

He was telling the truth, but he was the only one who had seen it. Hermione, Neville, and Sirius all trusted him, almost explicitly. But as Hermione had pointed out, even if he was the vaunted Boy-Who-Lived, Harry was still a fourteen year old boy. Nobody had any reason to believe his claims.

And loathe as he was to admit it, she was right, as she almost always was. Thank god Sirius gave her that book about House Elves. Otherwise, she might have gone off on a tirade to save all of the elves. They even found out that Dobby had bonded to him after Harry had tricked Lucius into releasing him. Dobby was now helping keep Sirius alive, out of the hands of the dementors, and delivering mail. When he tried to send mail out with Hedwig, he hadn't gotten any return mail. He didn't like the idea that someone was intercepting his mail.

Once he found that Dobby could deliver mail between the four of them, he had been getting news from the wizarding world, and nobody was acting. The ministry wasn't acting, hell, not even Dumbledore was acting. What was worse was that as far as he could tell, was that Dumbledore left him out to dry.

Dumbledore let him take the fall and now the entirety of the magical community abandoned him, consigned him to the loony bin.

He was almost out of allies. His fight with riddle showed just how woefully unprepared he actually was to fight. And yet he had no one to teach him how to fight. Dumbledore certainly wasn't teaching him anything.

Sirius had been an auror before he had been thrown in Azkaban. But Harry had no idea where he was. Not that he could do any training over the summer in the first place. The ministry would have him expelled before he could teach himself anything.

'_Perhaps they'll send me some useful material for my birthday next week,' _Harry mused. _'There has to be something that I could learn that won't set off the ministry detectors.'_

A loud rasping noise from directly behind him and a piercing shriek in his ear pulled Harry back to the world around him. Just to realize that the playground was covered in a fine layer of frost.

Trying to get to his feet, draw his wand, and turn around, landed Harry on his back with his foot wrapped in chain of the swing set.

While disentangling himself from the swing, he saw them. Two dementors were hovering above him, and his vision was going black around the edges.

One of the dementors was descending on him quickly. It's rasping breath growing louder, sucking at the air.

As Harry was struggling to raise his wand, his strength sapped by the proximity to the dementors, he felt a cold wind blow at him from behind, and he could see snow fly past him.

Harry's world went dark and he heard a voice that froze his very blood.

"Desist."

**A/N**

I know this chapter was definitely not the greatest but this is the first time I've written for fun in a very long time but I am trying once again because I could not let go of this story idea.

I have no idea how often I'll be able to update because I am going to college, and I'm not I am not a particularly fast writer in the first place.

This story will not be abandoned, I have most of it planned out but I would still appreciate comments and ideas to help the process along.

Flames will be ignored.

_**Please comment and review**_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Yeah… That makes sense.**

**I own nothing.**

Molly and Dresden stepped through the Veil and saw a boy, a skinny teenaged boy with messy black hair and glasses, laid out on the ground in front of two… things. These things, floating above the ground, swathed in tattered black cloaks with nothing but a black hole where the face should be, looked like massive specters of death itself.

Molly went pale and looked like she was going to be sick as each felt a heavy feeling of despair settle over them.

"Be gone from this place," Mab hissed at the things as her presence pressed down on the scene.

The things, seemed to share a glance before the whirled and flew off into the distance, and with them gone, the Winter Queen turned her ire on the two of them.

"Take this boy to the nearest warded house. He will be your guide in this world," she spat before moving back to the portal. At the last second she turned and threw a little golden key on the ground before them.

"You will need that," and then she walked back into the Nevernever and the gate closed behind her.

Dresden stared at the spot she disappeared from before taking stock of the situation. They were in a park. With a slide, sandbox, swings, jungle gym, some trees and benches, it looked like any park anywhere in the western world. And it was completely unhelpful in telling him where in Lash's name they were.

Looking a little farther he could see houses, houses on all sides. And they all looked the same. Which besides being more than a little creepy and confusing still didn't tell him where they were, didn't Mab say something about another world? He should probably ask Bob when they got to this reputed safe house.

"Boss, we need to get him to a safe place and wake him," Molly's voice had a hint of urgency to it and it drew him back to the present.

The kid was pale, sweating, and occasionally he would twitch. His mouth was moving but the only intelligible word that he could hear was please.

Whatever those things were they did a number on him.

"Alright," Dresden said as he bent down to pick up the boy and finding him pretty light. As he slung the kid over his shoulder he asked Molly to grab the key and lead the way to the house.

There wasn't even a question of if she could do it. They both knew she could sense magic far better than he ever could.

Molly led the two of them down the closest street for a block or two before pointing at one of the houses. It was number four, and he better remember that because the house looked the damn same as every other house they passed on their way here. Did these people have no imagination whatsoever?

They walked up to the front door and right into the house. The kid had probably left the door unlocked so he could get back in from his night time adventure. He felt the wards as they passed through them.

They were good wards, not very strong but they would definitely keep out all passing undesirables, as long as they didn't put up a determined effort. At least, they would probably keep those that meant to harm the occupants from stumbling on the house in the first place.

Which was a good thing because there was no threshold to speak of what so ever. The house didn't look new, but it also didn't have a lived in feeling, and it definitely didn't feel welcoming. Almost as if the whole place was made of glass, if you weren't careful the entire image would crack and then shatter.

The family that lived here was definitely not a very loving one.

Dresden set the kid down on the sofa and then slumped down in a nearby recliner. Molly curled up in a chair on the other side of the room and looked questioningly at Dresden.

"Get some sleep grasshopper. We can worry about getting an explanation in the morning."

And with that Dresden closed his eyes; his last thoughts of the evening were about why the hell their guide was some random kid.

*****Scene Break*****

Harry woke up with the first rays of light in the morning. When he remembered that he passed out during a Dementor attack he shot up and saw the Dursley's living room. Someone had put him on the sofa.

Pulling out his wand he looked around the room. The clock read six, which was far too early for the Dursley's to be awake but he could hear water running.

When his eyes finally made it over to the recliner he saw a man sleeping in it. The man was wrapped in a trench coat and was clutching a long wooden staff with lots of runes carved into it.

As Harry raised his wand at the intruder, someone behind him spoke.

"Careful buddy, we aren't here to hurt you. Though I don't think you could hurt him anyway."

Harry spun around and in the chair was a woman. She definitely wasn't in that chair a few seconds ago.

He pointed his wand at her. Running a few spells from defense class through his head just in case.

"Who are you? Why are you here? What happened to the dementors?"

"Slow down buddy, my name is Molly and if you let me wake up Harry maybe we can go somewhere a little more private to talk about this stuff."

Harry, wondering how it was she knew her name, was about to respond when the man behind him did for him.

"Don't worry about it Molly, I'm up." Turning slightly Harry saw the other Harry stand. He looked like he was only half awake and was ready to pass out again on a moment's notice. They looked at each other with his counterpart's gaze lingering on his face and wand before other Harry spoke again.

"Lead the way kiddo," he said with a large amount of curiosity showing through. Harry wanted to know what he was curious about.

The black-haired teen was about to comply but he heard the imposter Mad-Eye Moody shouting constant vigilance at him in the back of his head.

"My room is the up the stairs at the end of the hallway to the right. You lead," Harry tried to say with a little more confidence than he felt. Molly gave an indifferent shrug before spinning on her heel and walking out of the living room.

With one of the two potential threats out of the way, Harry pointed his wand back at the tall guy with the staff to wait for him to make his move. He really hoped he didn't break out in a cold sweat at the moment.

The other Harry gave him another once over before giving him, what he could only guess was an approving nod before following the woman with two colored out the door.

Harry took two deep breaths to try and calm his raging nerves before following the two of them up the stairs and into his bedroom.

When he arrived in his room he found Harry parked on his school trunk and Molly sitting on the rickety desk chair he scavenged from a dumpster a few years ago. Both of them were eying Hedwig who simply seemed to be amused with the entire situation.

Closing the door to get their attention he asked the question that had been on his mind since he woke up that morning.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?"

*****Scene Break*****

Harry Dresden was watching the Potter boy's reaction. It had taken a couple of hours to get through both of their stories. He and Molly had both agreed that if Mab wanted the kid to be their guide in this world, there had to be a good reason for it. And since he was their guide they needed him to trust them, and they would need to trust him.

So they went with as much honesty as they could. They told him who they were, where they were from, how they got here, and why they were here in the first place.

It must have worked because at some point during their story he had lowered his stick and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

They hadn't told him everything, like how he had himself killed to get out of being under Mab's thumb, or who he had killed to wipe out the Red Court Vampires or who he had been trying to save with that move in the first place. There wasn't a need or enough time to get through all of the details, but they did give him the abridge version of some of their earlier adventures, to help him understand some of the background for the players. On both sides of the law.

Right now the kid was holding his head in his hands, but when he lowered his hands and lifted his head he had a very determined expression on his face.

"I will help you but I want your help in return."

That seemed it was going to be too easy. "Okay what's the catch?"

"You said you can't leave until you capture or kill this outsider thing right?"

"Yeah, but I don –"

"And you aren't from here so you won't be able to get around without my help?"

"No, but I –"

"I have had," he pauses and counts of on fingers, "more than 10 attempts on my life in the past 4 years, and we're on the verge of war with a… thing who has an unusual fixation on me and anyone even remotely connected to me."

Dresden and Molly both searched Harry for any signs of deception there were none. The kid was being honest.

Harry then looked at Molly, wondering what she thought of the situation. After locking eyes for a second she gave an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, glanced back at the kid, then back at him, and nodded. She didn't know what he wanted but knew he wasn't lying or exaggerating. She also thought that they should at least hear the kid out.

He blinked a few times in shock.

Did he really get all that from a few looks, a shrug, and a nod! Clearly he was imagining things again, though that didn't make any worse of a starting point.

Shaking his head Harry turned his attention back to the kid. Said kid was anxiously sitting on the edge of his bed. His knuckles were white because of how hard he was clenching the sheets.

Harry Dresden sighed in defeat. He didn't even know the kid or the request but he couldn't help but like green eyed boy looking back at him.

"Alright kid, why don't you start at the beginning and then tell me what you think I can do for you."

*****Scene Break*****

Molly looked back and forth between Harry Potter and Harry Dresden. Harry Potter was slumped over on his bed. He looked like he was going to cry, or break something. This was probably the first time he had ever told anyone his entire story. She could feel the pain he was experiencing, as well as the anger. But most of all he was feeling relief. Was that because he finally told someone, or because someone believed him?

She could see Harry Dresden mulling over what he was told. She could also feel him contemplating what he had been told. But she could also feel his confliction. He wanted to help the kid. She wanted to help him too. But to help him in the way he wanted would require a long term commitment and none of them could tell how long that commitment would be.

Molly thought that they should try and help the kid with his problem. Chicago was protected well enough without them, she didn't even know if the amount of time would matter. They were in another world. And it looked light they had been dropped into an eighties movie. Maybe when they went back they would arrive right after they left, no matter how long they were there.

She didn't think Harry had noticed yet. He had done most of the talking, and she barely slept that night.

After she let, and assisted, Harry kill himself, she never slept. She took to the streets to try and do what she could to help in his place.

She sighed. This was not the time or place for that.

Harry's voice brought her out of her thoughts, and she could feel the resignation that could be heard in his words.

"So your saying that this voldywarts character used your blood in a ritual to give himself a new body at the end of May last spring and he's going to lead a bunch of inbred fools to try and take over the magical world. But because everyone is so afraid of him not only will they not fight back but they won't even believe he's back in the first place?"

The kid nodded. He was the very picture of insecure. He probably couldn't have lied about his past even if he tried. He was an honest soul to the core.

"Okay kid, we'll do what we can to help."

Green eyes flashing brightly with unshed tears, Harry Potter looked like Christmas had come early for him. Joy and happiness were just pouring off of him in waves.

Molly smiled at that. Harry could never resist helping someone in need. It almost killed him multiple times.

But it was one of the things she liked most about him.

Cause he had saved her too.

***** Scene Break*****

Well at least he now knew why the kid was their guide in this new world. Harry Potter had been through more shit than he had at that age. And while he would have to double check all of the possible details with Bob, who had definitely started listening before the kid finished his first year at school, Harry was confident that the entire story was true.

At points it seemed like the kid was desperate for him to believe him, especially when he talked about his godfather and the return of this Moldyshorts character this past year.

People were probably looking at him like he was the boy who cried wolf. Maybe that was how Murphy felt when she still worked Special Investigations.

But he could do some good here. Home was safe. He trusted the people there to keep it that way. Okay he trusted most of the people there, but all of them would protect his city in his stead.

Harry already knew what he was going to do. Molly probably did too, but he should at least tell the kid about it.

"Okay kid, we'll do what we can to help."

*****Scene Break*****

Harry felt like the smile that appeared on his face would split it in two. They had believed him, and they would help. He wouldn't have to worry about the upcoming year now.

He had help.

Yeah he had Hermione and Sirius to help him, but Hermione was only as experienced as he was, and Sirius wasn't able to act in public. So he could only support Harry from behind the scenes or in another dire circumstance.

He thanked them profusely, and then set about filling in those who needed to know.

Grabbing some parchment and quills from his desk, he quickly penned a letter to Dumbledore to let him know the good news. After he sent that off with Hedwig he penned another letter to Hermione and then a third to Sirius to let them know what was going on and what the plans were.

It already looked like it would be one of the best years he would have.

**A/N**

I know this chapter isn't quite as long as the last one but it was best broken up at that point. The next chapter will probably be longer than either of these two chapters.

However, that means it probably won't be up for a while, I'm surprised this one managed to write itself so quickly. Please don't always expect new chapters out so often.

As usual please leave comments and ideas. I have most of this figured out in my head but I would love feedback to help me move the story forward.

Flames will be ignored.

_**Please Read and Review**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Hello Merlin**

**I own nothing…**

Harry Dresden was having an interesting week.

He was thrown into a new world with little more than the cloths on his back, and now he was about to have an interview with some wizard who he didn't know to get a job teaching hormonal teenagers about a subject he knew nothing about.

He still couldn't believe he let the kid talk him into doing this.

That bus that he rode here was absolutely ridiculous.

_Flashback_

"_Okay kid, how are we getting to diagonally?" he asked when they stopped at the end of the driveway looking around. _

_He didn't see a car coming or anything that looked like transportation. He supposed they could take the Nevernever but he had no idea what being in another world would mean for that._

_Potter rolled his eyes but he and Molly smiled slightly._

"_It's Diagon Alley, and we're taking the bus," the youngest of the three said in a false haughty tone._

"_Does the bus stop here?" he asked, frowning, and with more than a little skepticism._

_The smirk should have warned him. And he definitely should have been worried when the kid raised his wand._

"_Hell's Bells!"_

_And when the triple decker purple bus, banged out of nowhere, less than a foot from his face, he fell on his ass._

_Of course the two of them were snickering at him._

_He definitely should have been worried._

"_You okay there boss?"_

_Glaring at Molly, who somehow stayed standing, and the green-eyed kid with eyes filled with mirth, he stood._

"_What is that?" gesturing widely at the bus._

"_I'm pretty sure it's a bus boss," Molly giggles. One Harry laughs and the other rolls his eyes._

"_It's called the Knight bus," the laughing Harry supplied, "it will take us to the Leaky Cauldron."_

_End Flashback_

Needless to say the trip to the pub had been as endearing as the buses arrival. At least he wasn't alone embarrassing himself this time.

Both he and Molly had spent the entire ride sliding all over the place. Harry didn't have any idea how the kid managed to stay put while the bus was in motion, but he did it. And he had spent the entire time giggling at the two adults that were being made fools of.

He really did like the Leaky Cauldron though. Harry was reminded very much of Mac's bar back home. The atmospheres in the two different bars were very similar in three very important ways.

He wasn't sure if the wizards around him were even aware of how important the layout was. Despite being larger, the Leaky Cauldron had thirteen, randomly placed, wooden columns supporting the building. It dispersed the energy of all the milling magical people in the building, helping keep the environment quiet and subdued.

Harry couldn't tell if the columns were ever carved. They were worn smooth from age and the rubbing of human hands. This building was far older than the pub that now inhabited it.

The food was also spectacular. Easily on par with what Mac would cook. Here it was the meat pies and other more English dishes where at home it was steak and other American bar foods. The food was brought to you, as were the drinks, but it was a far and bigger larger establishment.

But the drinks, oh the drinks. There must be something in the water here, or maybe it was the magic in the earth, but even with Butterbeer's almost non-existent alcohol content, he still rated it up there with some of the best drinks he had ever had the pleasure of having. Sadly, it seemed that once more alcohol was added the quality went down drastically and it left him craving one of Mac's signature drafts.

But at least he understood all of those things.

The magical shopping behind the Leaky Cauldron was well beyond Harry's comprehension. Almost everything that he saw just confused him more. The need for specialized potions ingredients and equipment was one of the more baffling. But owls for delivering mail, and parchment and quills to write with? It was like he stepped back into the dark ages for the most part, not that the White Council was much better, but he could ignore them for the most part.

Going to the book store was of no help either. The spells were like nothing he had ever seen and the some of the animals in those books were thing he only thought could be found in the Nevernever, not in the… well the real world was kind of relative at that point wasn't it.

The books on Ancient Runes and Arithmancy at least made sense to him. But they seemed so limited to what he knew from back home. There wasn't anything about practical application of runes beyond warding, and though that was very advanced and complicated, it was also very old, several centuries in fact. Most of it amounted to it works, even if we don't know how or why. Arithmancy had a lot of information about spell mechanics but almost nothing about spell creation or how to breakdown an unknown spell based on its effects.

In fact there were no books on magical theory, and what they had on spell creation was mostly guess work, in the entire store. That spurred his conversation with Bob later in the evening to try and get some answers.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Locking his door so he was sure he wouldn't be disturbed, Harry Dresden sat down on his bed and pulled out Bob's skull._

"_Bob, wake up I need answers and if you can give them to me I promise I'll get you two new romance novels for you."_

"_Whoa boss, you must be in quite a pickle if you're promising me so much," the Skull exclaimed as the eyes lit up in orange light. Then the air spirit gained a pensive air before his eyes widened in disbelieve. "No you didn't, what are you doing here? How did you get _here_?"_

"_Bob, what are you talking about?"_

"_How did you get in _this _world?"_

_Harry set the skull down on the bedside table and gave Bob the condensed version of how Mab had sent them there and what had happened since their arrival._

_Bob whistled, "Wow, you can't go anywhere without coming across trouble, can you?"_

"_Are you talking about those dementoid things?"_

_The skull seemed to shiver at the mention of the cloaked monsters, "Dementors, you should be glad Mab managed to hold her temper against them."_

_Now it was the Winter Knight's turn to shiver, if Mab had lost her temper at those things, the city they were in probably wouldn't have survived. "Why would the Winter Queen lose her temper at those things?"_

"_They feed on negative emotions, making you relive your worst experiences over and over again, and when a soul has been tormented enough they suck the soul out of said being. When they take the soul they take whatever magic had been with them. If one of them had gotten a hold of you or Molly, it would have taken the Mantles of the Winter Court with it too. She ain't exactly a nice chess master, but she's very protective of her pawns."_

"_Okay I got that, but why not just blow them out of the sky? I saw her drive them off."_

"_Well, Dementors are very hard to destroy…"_

"_How hard?"_

"_As hard to kill as the Hulk, or maybe Superman, they are practically un-killable."_

"_So what would it take to kill them? Mab definitely has power to spare if she's only killing the Hulk and Superman."_

"_That's part of the rub, Dementors are creatures of ice and darkness, and they are almost undead. Because of that they fall under her control, sort of, if they recognize her power. But that also means most of her powers don't work on them. She would literally have to rip them apart with raw magic, but other than that it would take an extremely overpowered fire spell to kill them."_

"_Damn, so they are immortal soul suckers that make you depressed, is there any way to defend against them? Drive them off?"_

"_Yeah, here they call it the Patronus spell. It basically creates a manifestation of positive emotions that when strong enough will drive off dementors. It takes a lot of energy and a really happy memory. I would be careful if I were you, you have a lot of negative emotions so they will be attracted to you and Molly."_

"_Thanks for the warning, now do you feel like explaining how you know so much about a world that isn't connected to ours?"_

_Bob looked extremely uncomfortable when Harry brought that up. With a sigh he started to explain, "A few hundred years ago I found the room with all the arches, being curious I travelled through a few of them and spent awhile learning all I could about each I went to, eventually the protectors of the chamber wised up and tried to catch me. _

"_I escaped into your world and made a deal with a wizard to give me protection in exchange for knowledge, and that was how I ended up in the skull. The Unseelie have been less than hospitable towards me since."_

"_Okay, so you've been to this world before? What can you tell me about it?"_

"_Alright, what do you want to know?" _

"_What the hell is up with the wands and spell casting in this world? And where did all these creatures that are only supposed to live in the Nevernever come from?"_

_After that Bob had launched into a long explanation about the magical creatures that boiled down to the fact that there was an impenetrable barrier between this world and the Nevernever that trapped the creatures here when it split off from the Nevernever in the first place and that the only reason the creature hadn't been killed off was because this world gave off so much more magical energy that they could survive the nullifying effects of the sun and water._

_That explanation segued nicely into his explanation of spell casting in this world. Because of the existence of magical plants and animals in this world it allowed them to create focuses that were far more in tune with the castor's magical core than any rune carved staff would be, that was the birth of the wand. This let them channel magic through their wand with extreme efficiency and ease._

_To make spell casting easier to learn, they used incantations and developed wand movements to focus the intent and willpower to use magic. It, unfortunately, worked too well in hide sight. Because of how efficiently wands worked, and because of the amount of ambient magic, it required almost no intent on the part of the witch or wizard to cast a spell._

_After the founding of the major magical schools throughout the world most people completely forgot that willpower and intent were once necessary to use magic. Overtime it was simply forgotten, teachers would demonstrate the spell and the students would copy the incantation and movements because that was all the input that was needed. It looked like the same happened for the usages of runes and arithmancy. That was why enchanted objects were now so expensive; to make them they literally imbued the object with magic of its own and then tied a combination of spells and enchantments to them._

_It was a very long and difficult process, and once the magic in the object had been used up, it wasn't of any more use._

_What had been forgotten was that runes, when made and maintained correctly, could specifically direct energy once it was put in it, like his staff or blasting rod, and in certain circumstances, could even be made self-charging, like his rings. At least Harry now understood why the kid wanted him to teach him. The way he and Molly manipulated magic seemed to have disappeared from this world._

_Maybe a few of the magical masters had discovered the secret and hadn't realized it, but from what he had seen and what Bob had told him, it sounded like the magical community had stalled in the medieval era. And during that time people thought they were entitled to things. Maybe that was why the importance of will and intent were forgotten, but who could say for certain._

_End Flashback_

* * *

Okay so he had forgotten more magical theory and application than most people in this time had ever learned, but he still didn't know most of the possible spells a person could learn.

After his talk with Bob, Harry learned that the key Mab had given him was for a vault in Gringotts, which had enough gold in it, that the two of them would never have to go hungry.

With that money he bought himself and Molly a wand (thirteen inch white oak and griffon feather for Harry, 9 inch willow and sphinx hair for Molly) and a small mountain of spell books to learn from. It was at that point that he realized exactly how _easy _spellcasting was with a wand, especially since he basically had a master key for magic, but it was a completely different tool than his staff or blasting rod.

The wand was like a scalpel to perform spells with. It channeled magic easily and quickly but there was only so much magic he could push through his wand at a time, and it didn't change the effects of the spells much either.

On the other hand performing precision spells with his staff took far more energy and focus for less result. Trying to levitate a book with his staff was nearly impossible. But some of the spells that didn't require wand movements were fairly easy and powerful to cast with his staff.

Neither Harry nor Bob could tell if that was because of his power boost from the Mantle of the Winter Knight, the hellish training that Mab had put him through without any equipment or the fact that there was so much ambient magic to use in this place.

Of course performing a spell straight from a spell book in what was effectively a motel room was completely different from remembering the spell in the first place and performing it at will. And he still didn't know heads or tails from the majority of magical creatures or even how to fight magic with magic.

He had a few guesses at what 'Dark Arts' were and why they were considered so dangerous, but there weren't any books about those either, a few references but it seemed like all the books about them had been removed on purpose.

So all in all, he felt a little more comfortable being able to navigate _this _world. But he didn't feel any more comfortable about his upcoming interview.

* * *

Sirius Black was helping Dobby clean out 12 Grimmuald Place when the house elf popped away, presumably to deliver a letter for Harry.

Sirius really had to admit that it was an ingenious idea to use the house elf to deliver letters between them instantaneously, without the threat of anyone being able to intercept them.

The grim animagus paused in his cleaning to admire what they had accomplished thus far. The house was old and had a very dark style in its architecture.

But it was making leaps and bounds now that it had someone taking good care of it. He stumbled back on it at the beginning of the summer to find all of its former inhabitants dead and gone. Even creature they had found huddled in a pile of rubbish underneath the boiler.

He and Dobby had been working since then to restore the house and make it habitable for himself and Harry.

Sirius was hoping that even though he was still a fugitive that Dumbledore would let him stay here with him during the holidays. The boy needed people who truly cared about him around to support him in the upcoming fights.

This time they would be prepared.

Dumbledore was leading the fight in the Wizengamot very effectively at this stage. Not that there was much to show for it yet. He was holding as many of his cards until he had to use them. It was a good idea when Padfoot actually took the time to think about it, but he was rarely that patient.

Especially after Harry's last letter about how he was worried that he was being deliberately blinded for whatever reason.

And loath as he was to admit it, Harry was being deliberately left out of some things, mainly to keep him safe and so he didn't go rushing off like Sirius would if he was given half a chance.

At that moment Dobby popped back and gave him a letter before popping away quickly without a word.

_He probably had a letter for Hermione too_, Sirius chuckled thinking about the two of them. They were thicker than thieves. He had a bet with Moony and a few of the Hogwarts professors and Order members, including Snivelous surprisingly, about when they would get together and who would do the getting.

As he read the letter, his eyes widened more with each line. And when he finished he ran for the door.

He needed to see Harry.

* * *

Hermione Granger was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling thinking of Harry.

The book she was reading, left open next to her, abandoned

It was a hazardous pastime, especially since it made her either very angry or very depressed if she did it long enough.

In the short term, it was all too easy to begin day dreaming about him in ways that her hidden romance novels only hinted at.

That was her biggest vice. At heart she was a pretty sappy romantic, and she satiated her hunger for romance with adult romance novels.

Her parents didn't _need_ to know she had been going to the used book store a few bus stops from their home and sneaking in a new romance book with her usual purchases since she had been twelve.

Nope they didn't need to know that at all.

Her weakness for sappy romance wasn't helped by the fact that the boy she had been arse over teakettle for since he had rescued her from a troll almost four years ago was way too good at being the dashing prince charming.

Harry hadn't realized what sort of effect he had on her, or other girls, yet.

He saved her from a troll, killed a Basilisk, drove off Dementors, rescued her from a lake, and took her to an honest to god ball and all before he was even fifteen.

Damn puberty. He wasn't even the small skinny boy that he was back in first year. He was growing into himself too well.

Even last year she could barely restrain herself from simply dragging him off and snogging him.

Hermione developed a full blush at the thought of doing those things with her long time best friend.

Rolling over and looking out at the stars over the Mediterranean she remembered what Fleur told her when they bumped into each other over a week ago.

The French witch asked if she and Harry had gotten together yet, making Hermione very flustered.

After glaring at Fleur for a few moments while she laughed at her embarrassment, the bushy haired girl finally managed to ask how she knew that she was carrying a torch for Harry.

She explained that as a Veela she could feel the connections between people, and the connection between Hermione and Harry was so strong, the only good comparisons were married couples.

At first she had been ecstatic that Harry felt anything for her. But then her tendency to worry over took her and she began to fear that maybe Fleur was wrong about the two of them, or that Harry's feelings were different, or worse that the two of them did feel the same but that he was too bloody noble to try anything.

That had sparked off a series of, in her opinion awkward letters from her to Harry. She had a bad habit of writing the same way she talked to people. So she wrote one sided conversations to others in her letters.

And lately she was so conscious of her feelings for Harry that she couldn't bring herself to read over what she wrote to him in the first place. And now she was worrying so much about his reaction to the letters that she could barely sleep.

A soft pop and suddenly there was a letter from Harry sitting on her bedside table for her.

Hermione desperately tore at the envelope wondering what Harry said, but as soon as she pulled it out she realized how thick it was, almost five sheets of parchment.

Stunned that Harry would write so much, she began reading furiously while thinking;

_Harry, what have you gotten yourself into now?_

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was not having a good summer.

Sitting alone in his office certainly wasn't helping him feel any better about his decisions thus far either. And most of the bad choices he has made involved a certain black haired teenager with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Starting with when he had left Harry Potter with his relatives on the night of November 1, 1981. That at least hadn't been his biggest mistake.

Albus had wanted Harry to grow up with as 'normal' a childhood he could. If he had grown up in a magical house he would have been raised a celebrity, and he knew James and Lily would be rolling in their graves if their only son started behaving just like the pureblooded bigots they fought against.

It wasn't the happiest childhood Albus had ever seen but it was by far not the worst. He was given a room of his own and plenty of food to eat and for the most part, simply ignored.

He had gone back multiple times over the course of Harry's childhood to make sure he wasn't being mistreated. During some of those visits he had intended to tell him about his parents and the world he belonged to, but he could never bring himself to do it. Even Minerva who had been adopted by the Potters as a pseudo mother-figure had been unable to tell the child about his parents when he was so young.

Probably one of the best decisions that he had made in regards to the young Mr. Potter had been introducing him to the muggleborn Miss Granger. Normally only one child at a time went to Diagon Alley with the faculty. However, both he and Minerva had agreed that he needed at least one friend before he went to Hogwarts, and the two of them had been inseparable ever since.

But that seemed to be the only truly good decision he had ever had regarding Harry.

Moving the stone to Hogwarts worked, but unfortunately Voldemort and Quirell had torn down the wards that prevented students from entering the third floor corridor. He had also left all of the tasks half completed:

He left the music for Fluffy, burned away the other plants in the devil's snare room, transfigured the chess pieces to fight for him in the game of wizard's chess, defeated the troll, destroyed the animated fliers and bludgers in the key room, and filled in all the blanks for the riddle in the potion room.

Not to mention the innumerable wards and other traps between the rooms that had been planted as delaying tactics. That was all they needed from the traps in the first place. They needed to delay him long enough for the natural decaying process of the possession killed Quirell. But Harry and his friends had managed to follow behind the Dark Lord and confront him.

Whatever magical protection Harry had accelerated the rogue professor's decaying, ending the confrontation.

In their second year they had figured out that there was a basilisk in the school after the first student had been petrified. But when he brought it to the school board to have the school closed until they could find the monster and have it killed, they had blocked his attempts. And all attempts to tell the parents and ministry of what was happening were also blocked.

Unfortunately, Mandrake harvesting is very rare due to the danger the mature plants possess and the rarity of petrification in the first place. Hogwarts greenhouses provide almost the entire supply of Mandrakes for Europe, so finding other sources of mature plants to cure the petrification were also blocked.

Somehow Harry, Miss Granger, and Mr. Longbottom had found the Chamber of Secrets, killed the basilisk and saved Miss Weasley from a Horcrux. Thankfully no one had died over the year, but the Board of Governors still refused to let the incident out.

Third and fourth year were completely out of his control. The minister is the only one in the ministry with the authority to control the dementors, and there is only so much the wards can do against the dementors in the first place.

And the magical contract from the Goblet had forced Harry to compete for the school in the tournament. He still had no idea how the imposter had faked Harry's magical signature for the contract to work, but there was nothing that could be done at that point.

And when Harry had returned bringing news of Voldemort's return, he had so very much wanted to fully back Harry but couldn't do so. He had to make sure he remained in positions to fight back when the time came. He was already barely holding onto his positions in the ICW and Wizengamot, but he also needed to hold onto his position at Hogwarts.

Fudge had become intolerable in the past few months, and Albus was sure that Lucius Malfoy had something to do with that.

So instead he had been collecting people and forging political alliances behind the scenes to help fight back against the threat much like he had during the first Blood War.

He was brought out of his musings when a very recognizable owl swept into the office.

Hedwig landed on the headmaster's desk and stuck out her leg to deliver the letter from her master.

Albus reached out and took the letter from the snowy owl, wondering why Harry would be writing him during the summer.

He read and then reread the letter several times just to make sure he understood what Harry was telling him.

The young boy had managed to find someone who was interested in taking the DADA position here at Hogwarts. How he had done so while barely leaving Little Whinging was beyond imagining.

Of course the Headmaster was more than a little suspicious. He had searched near and far for _anyone_ who would be willing to teach the position before the Ministry had stuck him with their toadie, not that they had given him all that long to search in the first place.

And of course he remembered Delores Umbridge, she had been in Slytherin and nearly failed out before her Newts, but she managed to scrape an acceptable in History of Magic, Astronomy, and Divination.

There was no way she could be a competent teacher and her choice of textbook confirmed it.

However, here someone had dropped out of the sky into Harry Potter's lap and wanted to stay close to him for the foreseeable future, but may actually know enough about the course to warrant meeting him.

The Ministry's plant had already had her contract signed so he couldn't get rid of her, but maybe he could get him to teach an elective that would 'help' them learn how to cast defensive spells.

At the very least this man and his assistant could be helpful to the Order if he could convince them to join.

At worst they were a threat to Harry and needed to be removed. Meeting them was obviously the best option. Somewhere public where he could hide back up in case things go sour would be a good place, perhaps the Leaky Cauldron.

And with that, he penned a response to set up a meeting with this mysterious potential professor.

**A/N**

**Longest chapter thus far and I even cut out a few points because it was getting too long and I needed to break it up somewhere.**

**All the Magical Theory I discussed in this chapter is my attempt to streamline the mechanics of the two independent canons.**

**It breaks down into one world having far 'superior' magical foci and magical energy in it, and the other not having forgotten the 'ancient magics.'**

**If any of you are wondering why no one managed to figure out that willpower and intent were used in magic, the reasons are twofold.**

**The first is the natural limitation in the wands that the Potterverse use. They can only handle so much magical energy being pushed through them at a time, so there is no drive to find out when they have a wand in the first place.**

**The second is that it would normally take months of focus and practice before one can use even the simplest elemental spells on command that the most of the witches and wizards simply gave up.**

**(If it normally takes you a week to learn a spell with a wand, incantation, and wand movements, why would you spend months trying to learn how to do it without any one of the above?)**

**This brings up what I classify as Dark Magic vs what the Potterverse describes as dark magic.**

**My classification of Dark Magic is casting a spell with the intent to cause harm or completely take away free will. The only Dark Arts are spells that **_**require**_** the intent to **_**harm**_** as part of the casting.**

**The Potterverse dark arts are basically any spell that could cause permanent harm, blood based magics, most rituals, and dark magic is basically anything too powerful to be cast by a 'normal' witch or wizard.**

**(Most intent based magic would fall in the dark magic category, even if it only seems more powerful when it isn't, but of course it is impossible to measure intent so no one is caught when they do it accidentally, like when Harry drove off all those Dementors in the 3****rd**** book.)**

**Not everyone believes that but, as I see so many other fanfics put it, the wizards in the Potterverse are all sheeple.**

**Anyway, sorry for the long A/N but I felt justified because of the length of this chapter.**

**If you have any questions Please Review, and even if you don't Please Review anyway, it makes finding the motivation to write that much easier to find.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Hello Merlin**

**I own nothing. Thank you everyone who has reviewed. Enjoy the Chapter.**

Harry Potter crawled under the covers on top of his lumpy mattress and tried to get some sleep. It had been a long day when all was said and done.

Even though he had spent most of the time talking to Dresden or listening to his two rescuers tell him stories about their adventures, it had been exhausting.

He supposed that might have been because he finally let the flood gates open and told them _everything_ that he had gone through, starting way back with the troll in his first year right up to when he got back from the graveyard after the third task.

What was better was that they had believed_ him!_ Almost no one believed him outside of Hermione, Neville, Sirius and Remus.

As he thought about the day's events, he pulled the pentacle out of his shirt and fiddled with it. It had done something strange today that it hadn't done in a while.

It pulled him towards Dresden and Molly. It hadn't given him that strong a reaction towards anyone since he had become friends with Hermione.

It also gave him positive reactions towards a couple of other people like Remus, Sirius, and Neville, but those weren't nearly as strong.

It was more or less neutral to almost everyone but there were a few people it gave negative reactions too, trying to push him away from people like the Malfoys or the imposter Professor Moody.

After he had gotten beaten up a few times in primary school when he ignored the warning and went near the people who gave negative reactions he learned to trust it.

He suspected the runes on the chain did it, but he wasn't certain. It could be something inherent in him, but whenever it happened he got the distinct impression that the pendant moved to get closer to or further away from the people it reacted too.

That was probably why he had told them everything when he hadn't even told Sirius or Remus about all of the things that had happened to him.

It might also have to do with the adventures that they had gone on in the first place were just as bad if not worse than his, so they would understand better what he had gone through when he ended up in those situations.

He had even asked them to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts in the fall term and took them to the Leaky Cauldron. But he couldn't really help it they just _felt_ like family.

BANG. Harry jerked upright as his door was thrown in.

Standing in the doorway was a tall lean form holding a wand and scanning the room. When the man's eyes reached the bed he spread his arms wide and shouted, "Harry!"

"Sirius! What are you doing here?" Harry asked as put on his glasses and was enveloped in a hug by his godfather.

"No time, come on we're getting you out of here." He said with an edge of haste in his voice, "don't worry about your stuff we'll have Dobby come and get it for us."

Harry nodded while he put on his shirt and pants, "where are we going?"

Sirius smiled with a twinkle in his eye, "It's a surprise, now grab my arm, I'm going to side along apparate you there."

The bespectacled youth took the older man's arm and with a loud crack they were gone.

* * *

"So, Mr. Dresden, how did you meet the young Mr. Potter?"

Harry Dresden leaned back in his chair and stared deliberately at the bridge of the Headmaster's nose. The man looked far too like the Merlin from back home to make him feel comfortable. And he still didn't know if the soul gaze worked in this world yet but he wasn't taking the chance.

It also gave him some measure of protection from mind magic, and he definitely didn't trust this man nearly as long as his beard was.

The two of them were in a private room at the Leaky Cauldron so they could have the interview without being interrupted by the many people who seemed to want to talk to this man.

Albus Dumbledore made him a little uneasy. He had heard about all of the kids' adventures since they had entered school in their first year, and Harry wasn't impressed after all the things 'Mister Potter' had told him about this man.

He knew from the moment the old man had arrived that he was being judged by the esteemed Headmaster of Hogwarts.

And he was powerful. The kid hadn't told him much about the Headmaster in their talks but he had told him that Dumbledore was probably the single most powerful wizard alive, and now Harry believed it.

He wasn't as powerful as all of the monsters that he had gone up against back home but this man was definitely as powerful as any of the other senior council members.

He didn't look as power mad as the Merlin, but looks could be deceiving, and he was more than strong enough to be able to tell if he was lying to him.

Now, he just needed to keep his trap shut. He could do that… Right?

"I was in the neighborhood when I found the kid being attacked by a pair of dementors. My ride drove them off then told me to take care of the kid before she ditched me and my former apprentice there. We took him to his house, he woke up, we shared stories, and then he took us here and set up this interview."

The Headmaster nodded his head, seemingly mollified with that answer and the interview continued.

"What sort of stories did you share with Mister Potter while you were with him?"

"I told him about what I did for a living. I am, or at least I was, a private investigator, and I did a lot of work with the local law enforcement. I've made a fair share of enemies while doing so. I've had less than pleasant dealings with trolls, vampires, werewolves, demons, and more than a few dark wizards. The kid told me about his past few years at Hogwarts, in particular the events of last year."

Harry fixed the headmaster's long and crooked nose with a hard glare, and gripped the staff in his hand a little tighter.

However, the headmaster completely ignored his little show completely.

"Do you believe everything he told you?" Dumbledore asked, his eyebrows furrowing. Apparently he believed this to be important.

"Is there any reason I shouldn't?" Harry asked incredulously as he leaned forward. _Damn it, I'm losing my cool, and when the hell did I become so protective of the kid?_

The headmaster seemed to be momentarily taken back before quickly masking his features again.

"Thank you for answering that for me, it is heartening to see anyone believing Mr. Potter at this time," he said with a grandfatherly smile, "Now what are your qualifications?"

"Personal experience," he responded with a neutral mask that seemed to throw the Headmaster off pace again, and just as the Merlin impersonator opened his mouth to ask him to elaborate, Harry continued.

"I didn't go to one of your magic schools, I didn't take your standardized tests, and I definitely am not from around here. I got my first wand a few days ago after the kid brought Molly and me here. I don't know anything about spells or the creatures here, honestly I can't teach DADA at your school like the kid wants me too."

Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore was, for the first time in a very long time, at a complete loss for words, as he tried to wrap his head around this new information. The man in front of him was clearly a wizard. He could feel the magic in him, and he was strong. Possibly as strong as himself or Tom Riddle, but he didn't know any spells.

But he said he was involved in the magical world. How could he be involved in the magical world without having been through the system? That meant he had been outside of the schooling system. So something that Harry Dresden had done had seriously impressed Harry Potter, a fifteen year old boy who had fought a basilisk, a dragon, merpeople, dementors, and Dark Lords. What was it then?

"What did you tell Mr. Potter that would make him want to be taught by you?" Albus asked as he came out of his thoughts.

"Because Headmaster, I may not know a lot of spells or creatures," Dresden said with a smirk as he conjured a flame in his hand without a word or gesture, "but I do know a lot about Magic."

* * *

Molly was sitting at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron, nursing a butterbeer as she watched Harry walk away with the Merlin wannabe and sighed.

No matter how messed up her life was, she was not going to start drinking before lunch… again.

She could feel the Mantle of the Winter Lady swirling softly around her; the cool feeling was definitely not as comforting as it could be.

And damn did she want to be comforted. There was just too much shit happening too fast.

First she had _assisted_ in Harry's murder/suicide. And she still hadn't come to terms with that. Especially since he not only _came back_ but he was stuck in the same position that he had been trying to avoid in the first place.

Every time she looked him in the eyes, she wanted to break down and cry. But she couldn't let him see her be weak.

Molly had to prove it to him that she had grown up, that she was a woman who could make her own decisions and be responsible. Not some whiny little girl who would come crying to him at the first chance.

For God's sake she was nearly twenty seven and still single. She would probably be single for a very long time since she was sort of immortal now.

At least she wasn't a virgin, though she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing yet. She had lost it while she was drunk with whatever boyfriend it was that she had back then.

Molly knew she wasn't in love with him at the time, hell she barely remembered the dude's face much less his name now.

She had been in love with Harry at the time. Even after he had dumped a pitcher of water on her head to turn her down when he had saved her from being executed by the Wardens she hadn't stopped loving him.

She had been doubly sure that she wouldn't lose her virginity to him after that, but she couldn't be happy in any of her other relationships since she was still holding onto her hope that maybe one day, the two of them could be together.

Over the course of a four hundred year life, a twenty or so difference in age doesn't really mean a whole lot, not that she ever had an issue with it even when she was just seventeen. She expected, wanted, the both of them to be around for a long time, so she used him to anchor herself.

And while Harry had been… gone… she had lost it. She went rogue and did so many things that she promised him she would never do.

She did it because it was her fault that he was gone. She could have protected him, could have shown him what he meant to so many people so he wouldn't do it. But she didn't.

Molly had used what Harry had taught her about the mind arts to lock away her memories and the bad emotions, instead of dealing with them like she should have.

When the Leanansidhe came to complete her training, she threw herself into it to use it as a distraction from her problems with Harry.

Harry was back, only this time as the Winter Knight. She hadn't known what to think of it back then and had no idea what to think of it now.

Her feelings for him were so wrapped up in guilt and anger and fear and happiness and relief that she didn't have any idea what was going on with her anymore.

And before she could even begin to think about what happened she somehow ended up as the Winter Lady!

She felt the mantle shift around her again.

It was a constant reminder of her new duties. One of which was to take care of the Winter Knight, the object of her confusion.

Then there was this mission that she was on. She was envious of Harry in that regard. His mission was so straight forward: find the Outsider and kill it along with its host.

Her mission was not so straight forward.

Molly sighed again and looked around to see Harry walking toward her while the old man strode out the back of the building.

He sat down next to her with a smirk on his face.

"We have a job Professor Carpenter."

**A/N**

**Sorry this is such a short chapter but this is pretty much what was cut off from the last chapter.**

**The next chapter will be quite a bit longer as it will be Dresden and Molly's introduction to the castle and staff (Plus their reactions) as well as Harry's Birthday party and the rest of his summer with Sirius and Dobby.**

**The chapter after that will be Shopping in Diagon Alley, the train ride back to Hogwarts, the opening feast, and the first Order Meeting, all in all that chapter may end up being the longest yet.**

**I would also like to acknowledge my new beta, Sociopathic-Antichrist, for reviewing this chapter and going back and fixing the first three.**

**Anyway, please review, thanks again for all of the positive comments. Be on the lookout for new chapters.**


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